Danial Norjidi
The winners of the PlayStation Partner Awards 2022 Japan Asia were recently announced, marking the 28th time the event has been held since it started as the PlayStation Awards back in 1994.
The awards are presented to hit titles sold for the PlayStation, recognising the creative work of those who made them.
A total of 14 awards were presented across four categories, namely the Grand Award, Partner Award, Special Award and Users’ Choice Award.
The Grand Award was presented to the top two titles developed in the Japan and Asia region with the highest worldwide sales between October 2021 and September 2022.
One of the winners was Genshin Impact, which won the same award the previous year. This free-to-play open-world role-playing game by HoYoverse has proven popular since its September 2020 launch.
Genshin Impact features a campaign where the player travels to a fantasy world called Teyvat, embarking on a journey to reunite with a long-lost sibling and unravel Teyvat’s mysteries. The game can be played solo or in up to four-player multiplayer.
According to the PlayStation Blog, President of HoYoverse Jim Yang said on winning the Grand Award, “We are honoured to announce that Genshin Impact has won our second Grand Award at this year’s PlayStation Partner Awards 2022 Japan Asia. PlayStation is our ideal platform for enriching the content and deepening the immersion of open-world action RPG, and a partner we can count on.”
“In 2022, we have implemented the fourth of seven countries – Sumeru – and added many more high-quality features, functions, and language support to the game. We look forward to continuing to delight players from around the world and to attract more and more new players to the world of Genshin Impact. This could not have been accomplished without our team members, the gaming community, and our trusted friends for this achievement. We would like to thank everyone involved.”
Another Grand Award winner this year is Elden Ring by FromSoftware and Bandai Namco Entertainment. This action role-playing game is set in a fantasy world created by FromSoftware Director Hidetaka Miyazaki, creator of the influential Dark Souls video game series, and George R R Martin, author of the best-selling fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire.
In addition to the Grand Award, Elden Ring was among the five titles chosen for the Users’ Choice Award.
As is stated on the PlayStation Blog, Miyazaki said with regards to winning the Grand Award, “Thank you very much for the Grand Award and Users’ Choice Award. We could not be happier, especially with the Users’ Choice Award, since it is the result of users’ votes. We will continue to create more interesting games in the future, so we would be very happy if everyone could look forward to them. Thank you again for today.”
The Users’ Choice Award was presented to the top five titles chosen by users in the Japan and Asia Region, with candidates directly taken from the top 25 titles released last year ranked by the total number of hours played.
In addition to Elden Ring, recipients of the Users’ Choice Award included third-person shooter Earth Defense Force 6 by D3 Publisher Inc; third-person cat adventure game Stray from Annapurna Interactive; action role-playing game Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin by Square Enix; and action-adventure title Ghostwire: Tokyo from Bethesda Softworks.
Meanwhile, five titles were presented with the Partner Award, which is for titles developed in the Japan and Asia region with top-ranked worldwide sales between October 2021 and September 2022, with particularly noteworthy accomplishments.
The Partner Award recipients were: fighting action-adventure title Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Hinokami Chronicles by Aniplex; free-to-play digital collectible card game Yu-Gi-Oh! Master Duel by Konami Digital Entertainment; massively multiplayer role-playing game (MMORPG) Final Fantasy XIV by Square Enix; free-to-play action game Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation 2 by Bandai Namco Entertainment; and survival horror title Resident Evil Village by Capcom.
Two Special Awards were also presented. One Special Award was for titles developed outside the Japan and Asia region that have amassed the highest sales in the region between October 2021 and September 2022, won by Electronic Arts’ free-to-play battle royale first-person shooter Apex Legends.
Another Special Award, for titles developed in collaboration with SIE Worldwide Studios that have amassed the highest worldwide sales between October 2021 and September 2022, was won by racing simulation title Gran Turismo 7 by Sony Interactive Entertainment.
